Green Onion and Mushroom Scalloped Potatoes

I made this Saturday night, to take over to my Grandma's on Sunday. Everyone loved it.


Ingredients:

5 Medium to Large Russet Potatoes, sliced thin
2 (10.75 oz cans) of Cream of mushroom soup
1 to 1-1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup Sour cream
4 strips of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
6 Green onions, chopped, reserve some for garnish
1 1/2 cups white button mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced.
1 - 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
4 Tablespoons butter, reserve half.

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine soup, milk, sour cream. In a skillet, sauté mushrooms and green onions in 2 tablespoons of butter for 5 minutes over medium high heat, or until mushrooms are tender and browned. Let cool for a few minutes then add it to the soup mixture.

2. Layer sliced potatoes evenly throughout the bottom of a 13X9X2 dish, pour over some of the soup mix, top with some bacon bits, cheese, and repeat until done.

3. Bake at 350 Degrees F, for 60-70 minutes, uncovered. Remove potatoes about 5 minutes before they are done, top with more cheese and reserved green onions.

Serves 6.

Sunday 'Birthday' supper at Grandma's

So, yesterday my family and I went to have a 'Birthday' Supper organized by my Grandmother, on my dad's side of the Family. The Supper was for people in the family that had had birthdays in the months of January, February, and March. About a 1/3 of the people I didn't even know. But I caught up with an old classmate, from the 9th grade, Michael(I thought he had looked familiar...), who is currently dating my cousin.

The food... Oh my goddess. Let me tell you about the food. There was plenty of it, but most of the shit tasted BLAND and nasty. Of course they had some fresh fruit and veggie platters with dip, that was almost the only thing that had any flavor. Desserts galore. I had made a dish to take over there and everyone was coming up to me and telling me how great it tasted after they had finished the plate. Most went back for seconds. The dish came home empty.

I made a Green Onion and Mushroom Scalloped Potato. My very own concoction. And I am quite proud of it. Many even asked me for the recipe. I will post it soon in another post.

The Best fried chicken!

I had bought KFC the other day for lunch, it was alright, a little too peppery for me though. It made me think of my favorite fried chicken recipe, and nothing compares to it. The Recipe is from Paula Deen, one of my favorite southern cooks. I highly recommend it. The recipe calls for Self Rising Flour, but we used AP when we made it here last weekend. With this recipe we also cut the Texas Pete sauce down to half a cup, and soaked the chicken in butter milk over night, it makes an excellent moist Fried chicken.

Paula Deen's southern fried chicken.

1/3 cup water
About 1 cup hot red pepper sauce (recommended: Texas Pete)
2 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon pepper
House seasoning, recipe follows
1 (1 to 2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into pieces
Oil, for frying, preferably peanut oil
In a medium size bowl, beat the eggs with the water. Add enough hot sauce so the egg mixture is bright orange. In another bowl, combine the flour and pepper. Season the chicken with the house seasoning. Dip the seasoned chicken in the egg, and then coat well in the flour mixture.
Heat the oil to 350 degrees F in a deep pot. Do not fill the pot more than 1/2 full with oil.
Fry the chicken in the oil until brown and crisp. Dark meat takes longer then white meat. It should take dark meat about 13 to 14 minutes, white meat around 8 to 10 minutes.

House Seasoning:
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder
Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months. 

Now Here is also a self rising flour substitute recipe I found. I wish I had found it when I made the chicken last weekend. Oh well. It still turned out good! Fried Biscuits, from my Mummy's recipes are great with this meal too, along with Sausage Gravy.

2 c. sifted cake flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Sift the above together and use as self rising flour.

Fried Biscuits

1 (12-ounce) can biscuits
3 to 4 cups vegetable oil, for deep frying

Drop biscuits in hot oil for 2 to 3 minutes per side until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve with honey butter.

1 bottle of squeeze margarine
1/4 cup honey, or to taste

Open squeeze bottle and pour out about 1/4 of the butter and store for later use. Add honey and stir with a long teaspoon or a wooden skewer. Squeeze onto hot biscuits.

With this, I omitted the honey, and topped it with Sausage gravy instead. And fried in the same oil I did the chicken in.

Sausage Gravy:

1 pound sausage (Bob Evans Regular Recipe preferred)
1/2c to 1c Milk
3 tbsp AP flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown Sausage, do not drain fat. Sprinkle in flour, stir and cook flour for a couple minutes to insure that the floury taste will not be in this gravy. Add milk and bring to a simmer/boil to thicken. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Creamy-Cheesey Twice Baked Potato

Prep - 5 mins
Cook time - 1 hour 5 mins
Total - 1 hour 10 mins

Ingredients:

1 large Idaho Potato, washed
1 Tbsp bacon bits
1 Tbsp + 1 Tsp Cheddar cheese (or whatever cheese you desire), 1 1/2 tsp reserved
1 Tbsp butter
1 oz cream cheese, room temperature
2 Tbsp sour cream
2 Tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Bake potato on a sheet pan for 1 hour or until a fork can easily slide into the potato without resistance. Set aside

In a mixing bowl combine the cheese, milk, sour cream, butter, bacon and seasonings, mixing well. Set aside

When the potato is cool enough to handle split it in half length-wise and scoop out the innards of the potato, making sure not to tear the potato's skin. Add the potato innards to the cheese mixture and stir well to combine.

Restuff the potato skin, and top with the reserved cheese. Place the potato back on the the sheet pan and return it to the oven at 350 degrees or until the potato is warmed through and the cheese is melted.


Note: Instead of using onion powder, you can use finely chopped green onion or chives and omit the parsley if chives are used. For the veggies out there, you can omit the bacon bits.

Sickie

Ick... I want to cook, I miss cooking. But... I have been sick lately with no appetite. It is getting better and I am slowly getting my appetite back. After I get some Cream cheese tomorrow I plan on concocting a Twice baked potato recipe. I learned a good one in my Food and Nutrition class a while back, but can't really remember it. I will make my own version of it tomorrow and post it.